Broken (Bwwm) *Completed*

My Brown Brothers and Sisters

In the past 48 hours Two black men have been killed at the hands of white policemen.

Alton Sterling was the first.

An anonymous call was made to the police, that he was threating people with a gun. Alton was tased by both officers but after it had no effect on him, he was tackled off the hood of a car and onto the ground. The two officers then pinned him down, one at his head another at his legs.

A police yelled that Alton had a gun and shots were fired. After about three seconds, more were fired into him. A video later showed Alton had no gun in his hands, but it was in the pocket of a pair of shorts.

I've seen the video and I noticed that the officer had to lift a flap and then dig in his pocket to retrieve the gun. I could also see that the officer clearly had Alton's hands. So my question is, at what point did he remove your grip on his hand, flip open his pocket, reach in and grab that gun?

In addition, unless Alton had a suicide mission, why would he believe he could not only grab that gun but angle himself in a way that he could shoot both of you? Oh, okay.

The next was Philando Castile.

A video surfaced on Facebook that shows the aftermath of the shooting, recorded by his girlfriend.

You can see Philando slumped, blooded, and in pain in the drivers seat as an officer points a gun at him through the window.

His girlfriend is explaining that he let the officer know he had a gun and that it was registered. She also says that he let the officer know he was reaching for his wallet to get his driver license.

In the video you can hear her pleading and praying that Philando was not dead. You can also hear the police officer weakly say, "I told him not to reach."

I'm not saying that he was not reaching for that gun, because I do not personally know Philando and I was not there. What I'm questioning is, why four shots was necessary? Why didn't you ask him to exit the vehicle and then you disarm him?

And now today, I turn on the news or I go on social media and all they do is bring up past convictions and troubles. Does that justify killing someone? "Oh, well, he stole and robbed in his past so he wouldn't hesitate to do this."

If we go by that logic then everyone deserves to be sent to jail. Remember those crayons you stole from the restaurant as a kid? Well guess what, that's all the evidence we need to send you to jail for armed robbery because I mean you stole then, what's the difference now?

However the only difference was his skin color. His melanin filled skin, his large lips, and broad nose sealed his fate. Murdered in cold blood.

It's time to wake up. Wake up to the injustice, to the brutality, to the hatred. Enough is enough. The hundreds and thousands of family members can't take any more. The young black children growing up without a parent because their skin justified murder.

We want justice. We want equality. We want White, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, etc. People to be treated as one. No more lines because of color. A white man and a black man should be equal in the eyes of the law no matter what.

I've seen fear in the eyes of young black men wondering will they be next. Wondering if the hoodie or the color shirt they have on, is a target on their back. I've seen the trend on twitter were black men post two pictures, one that shows them looking like 'thugs' and one that shows them as 'regular' men.

We want justice for Alton Sterling, for Philando Castile, for Travon Martin, for Sandra Bland, for Tamir Rice, for Mike Brown, and the hundreds of others.

I think J.Cole said it best, "all we wanna do is be free, all we wanna do is take the chains off."